


it was real and it was beautiful

by The_Other_One7721



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, M/M, Multi, and after that it'll start to get away from canon, so it'll only have spoilers up through 4x06, this is going to be a complete rewrite of the second half of the season
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-01-23 02:50:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18540781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Other_One7721/pseuds/The_Other_One7721
Summary: What this season should have been





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've had any inspiration for creative writing, but as soon as I saw the awful finale I started to get an itch. I knew it needed to be fixed and for once I didn't want to sit around waiting for someone else to fix it for me. So starting from 4x06, I'm rewriting the season. This time the characters are not going to go OOC and the plot is actually going to make sense. I'm excited to get this underway!

“I’m Team Eliot.”

The words stood between them like a physical boundary. What more needed to be said? Alice had saved Quentin’s life, but was one action enough to undo broken trust? No. And Q couldn’t afford to get distracted by hurt feelings right now. Not now that he knew Eliot was alive.

_ Peaches and plums, motherfucker. _

The words rang through Quentin’s head.

_ I’m alive in here. _

Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds was all it took for his world to turn upside down and his heart to hope. But no…that was getting to far ahead. Right now they needed to start thinking of a way to save Eliot. Knowing he was alive…

Q barely noticed Alice grab the book and leave. The silence following her departure was deafening. With Alice gone Quentin was alone with his thoughts and all he could see was Eliot. Eliot when he saw him that first day at Brakebills…Eliot opening up about his childhood trauma to reassure him…Eliot teasing him about the mosaic…Eliot that night on their first anniversary stuck in Fillory…

“Q?”

Quentin looked up to see Julia standing by the kitchen counter. She must have come back out after Alice left. Q couldn’t blame her for not wanting to be around Alice. Julia had sacrificed everything to restore the keys and Alice had been the one that had destroyed them. That was a pain that was not going to be undone with one action.

“So we need to talk strategy.”

“Q…” There was hesitancy in Julia’s voice.

“We don’t know when the Monster will be back and we need to start thinking of a plan to stop it.” Quentin felt himself getting anxious. His hand twitched. He lifted it to run it through his hair. “There’s got to be a way to stop him.”

Julia was looking at him unsurely, like she was trying to figure out a puzzle. She often looked like this when they were learning the quadratic formula in high school. At the time, Quentin had thought that would be the hardest problem he’d ever have to solve…

“We had a way to stop the Monster.” It wasn’t an accusation, but it felt like one.

Quentin shrugged before throwing his hands up. “It wasn’t good enough. It would’ve destroyed Eliot’s body and we can’t allow that to happen.”

Julia nodded. “Because Eliot is alive.”

She didn’t believe him. Q could hear it in her voice.

“Yes. He is.” Was he being short? He didn’t mean to be. But she wasn’t helping and Eliot needed them. “I spoke to him.”

Julia paused for a minute, watching him. He wished she wouldn’t. What good was standing around, staring going to do? Who knew how much time they had left to help Eliot?

“So,” Julia finally said. “What do we need to do?”

Wasn’t that a good question?

**

Julia watched Quentin. He was sitting on the floor with a book propped up on the coffee table in front of him. It had been two hours since she’d heard him speak too engrossed in the research he’d set out for himself. She’s seen him like this before, obsessive over something, desperate to prove it true. Lately life had thrown so much shit at Quentin. She had been afraid he was on his way to a breaking point. This was always the first step. He’d hyper-fixate on something and pour all of his energy into it. Then when it didn’t work out the way he had hoped, when it didn’t stop the pain, the next step would come.

Talking to Q had proven futile at the moment. He wasn’t listening to anything that wasn’t a plan to save Eliot. So for today she would sit by him, pouring over ancient books that got them no closer to an answer. Because there  _ wasn’t  _ an answer. 

Julia had been worried from the moment Q had brushed off sealing away the Monster. He wasn’t dealing with his friend’s death and he wasn’t ready to let him go. Julia was almost glad Q had stopped the sealing from happening. Almost. He wasn’t ready to let Eliot go and doing so in that moment might have destroyed him. At least now Q could work through some of the trauma he’d been dealt lately and then they could come up with a way to get rid of the Monster permanently. 

Which did need to happen soon if they wanted to keep him from killing more innocent people. Hopefully he was too focused on the gods to waste any time on mere mortals. Unlikely. 

Julia looked at the clock, surprised that it was late in the evening and no one was back at the penthouse. Kady had been in and out for days now, but Julia had expected Penny to be back by now. He’d been hovering ever since Shoshana’s ritual and it felt odd that he had been gone for so long. He was over earnest when it came to helping, but right now that would be really nice.

“Knock knock.” The voice was sing-songy and Julia tensed automatically. It was only a matter of time before the Monster was back, especially since it seemed to view them as some kind of weird friends. Or maybe they were its playthings?

Julia looked over at where the Monster was leaning against the couch. He had appeared out of nowhere and was currently hovering over Quentin’s shoulder, reading whatever ancient words were written on the page. “What are we looking for?”

Julia continued to stare at the Monster, not speaking. How could someone who managed to thrust his fist into a gods chest and pull out their heart speak in such a childlike manner? How could someone so childish be so evil? A spark of an idea flickered at the back of Julia’s mind.

“We’re uh…” Q was stuttering. He had immediately frozen when the Monster reappeared, his hands gripping the edges of the book he held tightly. “We were just…looking…for a way to help you.” He was floundering for words to say.

“We want to help you find the other gods.” Julia piped in. The small idea she’d had taking root. The Monster turned to look at her.

“The other gods?” There was no emotion on the Monster’s face, but his voice sounded skeptical.

Julia nodded. “We already found Bacchus and Iris, we can help you find the others!” What was she saying?

“YES!” Q shouted, jumping up from his spot on the ground. Julia was startled by the sudden movement, and it seemed the Monster was too. “We can help track down the other gods. We have books…and..and…the magic. We can help you build a body.” Quentin was starting to talk faster. Suddenly he was the most animated Julia had seen in weeks. “If we keep looking through all of this we can find the next gods. Won’t that help you build your body?” Q sounded desperate. How did they go from silently searching through books minutes ago to desperately pleading with a murderous godlike being to let them help him? The sudden change felt like whiplash, yet it wasn’t so different from anything else that had happened in the past two years.

“Right. We can see what other gods might have had a reason to lock you away.” Julia winced, wondering if the reminder of what the gods did to him might upset the Monster. No matter how childlike the creature acted, they had witnessed him murder a goddess easily just that afternoon.

The Monster nodded nonchalantly. “If you say so.” He then sat down on the edge of the couch, watching.

Julia looked at Quentin. What were they supposed to do now? Q just shrugged and cautiously sat back on the ground, eyeing the Monster. He slowly picked up a book to start reading. Julia followed suit and watched as the Monster stayed in his spot, staring. Clearly he was going to be making sure they did what they offered to do.

Julia tried to focus on the ancient texts, but they were on a hopeless search and it was stupid to think there was even a chance of finding something in a random book pulled from the Brakebills library. Every so often she stole a glance over a Q and more times than not he wasn’t reading. No, he was glancing over at the Monster, a pain etched across his face that she could not remember seeing before. Her heart jolted as she realized Q’s quick agreement to help the monster came from wanting to save Eliot. If they got the Monster a new body, he could leave Eliot’s. At least that’s probably what Q was thinking. But Julia doubted the Monster would truly leave Eliot’s body. And wouldn’t there be consequences in helping him build this new body? 

_ Right now we just need to stall. And hopefully come up with a better solution.  _ While the Monster was there, they’d need to focus on a way to help him. But as soon as he whisked away to wherever the hell he went, Julia would be putting every effort into finding a way to get rid of him. Even if she had to look for a solution alone.

**

A loud slam startled Julia from sleep. For a moment, she looked around disoriented at the grand room around her. What the fuck was she doing in a room that would’ve gone for at least $5k in Queens? Her back hurt and she felt her spine pop as she moved. Right. She’d fallen asleep going through old books to find an impossible way to help a killing machine become an even worse killing machine. Because this was her life.

She stood up and stretched before remembering the loud slam. With so many people using the penthouse it barely even registered that she should be cautious. Maybe she’d gotten too used to the stupid shit that had been happening? 

Walking into the kitchen she saw Kady digging through the refrigerator. 

“Where have you been.” Julia asked as she sat down on one of the stools.

Kady gave her a hard look. “Didn’t know you were my mother now.” The words had a bite to them and Julia internally winced at the reminder of Kady’s mother. They had worked past that, but lately they’d fallen back to the tension they’d had at the start of their friendship.

“I’m just worried when people disappear for a long time.” Julia said cautiously. She knew Kady could take care of herself. She’d seen it plenty of times. But right now everything was halfway to hell and it would be nice if she just knew where everyone was. Like Penny, who was also AWOL at the moment.

Kady took a long swig of whatever juice was in the fridge. She screwed the lid back on before speaking. “I had an old acquaintance reach out about some hedge stuff. Just looking into it.” There was a lot Kady wasn’t saying, but Julia felt grateful she’d at least gotten that much. 

Julia nodded, watching as Kady moved to the other side of the kitchen. “What you’re not going to ask more questions?” Kady said sarcastically as she started to pull on her jacket.

“No.” Julia said. “I’m here if you want to talk, but I’ve kinda got a lot going on now too.”

At that Kady nodded, giving her an almost understanding look. They weren’t exactly friends right now, but there was a mutual understanding that they both had their own shit to work through and that was that. Perhaps there would be time to repair their relationship another time. Right now she had to figure out a way to somehow research both ways to help and ways to stop the Monster currently living with them. 

_ And I thought Monster’s living under the bed were made up stories. _ Julia laughed dryly. If magic was real, of course monsters were hiding in the dark. Sometimes they weren’t even hiding. 

Reynard’s face flashed through her mind. 

She shook her head at Q walked into the kitchen. 

“Any luck?” He asked as he made his way over to the cabinets and looked inside. “We’ve got to figure out what this next step is.”

Julia hesitated. “I don’t know, Q.”

Q closed the cabinet and turned around. “We have to help him get these stone...organ...prizes so we can get him out of Eliot. It’s a good plan.” 

“Unless we help him build a completely indestructible-titan-god body.” What were they doing? They needed the Monster off their backs, but could they really help him become even more dangerous? Her morning thoughts felt much clearer than last nights desperation.

“Well he’s already pretty murdery. It can’t get much worse.” Q shrugged, leaning back against the counter.

How could he be so casual about this now? “You say that like we can just risk people’s lives!” She didn’t mean to get angry, but how could he be so careless when people were dying. Stalling was one thing, but actively deciding that helping the Monster was their plan? 

“We’ve taken down gods before.”

“And we end up losing every time!”

“It’s Eliot.” The firmness is Q’s voice gave her pause. Again, the focus was on Eliot. Because Q was still convinced he was alive. She’d seen last night how he’d become convinced of this and if there was one thing Q would never do, it was give up on a friend. “Right now we can’t fix everything, but I think that we can do this.” By the end of his sentence, Q’s voice was softer, less sure despite the words he was saying.

She considered her next words more carefully. “Okay. For now we help the Monster. But we also have to figure out what our next move is going to be.” Q had to know that they couldn’t just go along with whatever the Monster demanded of them. She could help him help the Monster, but it would really just be another way of getting that Monster off their backs so they could figure out a real way to stop him. Surely Q would start to realize that.

He sighed. “Thank you.” He walked over to the counter and waited on her to add to the conversation. He knew her well.

“I don’t know, I guess I’m just worried. I can’t help you if…” She hadn’t wanted to think about it. How useless she was. How everyone around her could perform magic and actually fucking do something and all she could do was sit and not die. 

Quentin brushed her concern off “You’re helping a lot.”

“I was a goddess and now I’m just your friendly, neighborhood bullet proof vest.”

Q fought back a smile. “You would be a very high level X-Men.”

“Hmmm?” She couldn’t help the responding grin. Her nerdy best friend.

“Like a Emma Frost Diamond Form.”

“A mutant.”

“A mutant.” He agreed.

Julia used her chopsticks to throw a bit of noodles at Q. “Like the Indestructress. PEW!”

Julia laughed for a moment, thrown from how quickly she and Q had gone from nearly arguing to making nerdy jokes. She was so thankful for growing up with Q in her life. The world was full of shit, but right here, right now she had her best friend. And for a moment it felt like things were going to be okay.

“So about the page you gave the Monster…” Q started. The illusion of happiness crashed and the reality of the tasks before them set in.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Alice stared at the book, unsure of where to go next. She told Quentin if he allowed her to help him, then she would leave him alone. Now that she knew Q was safe, it was time to move on. She was on her own again.

That’s fine. She was used to it.

It’s not like she expected everyone to just forgive her and let her back in. Couldn’t they see she was only trying to help? That she knew information they needed? She had saved Q’s life! And she almost hadn’t been able to because Quentin tried to shut the door in her face. 

Alice stood up abruptly from the bench she was sitting on. If they didn’t want her help, then she would go somewhere else. She knew where she wasn’t wanted and she had enough dignity to not beg to be around people who dismissed her so easily.

She only took a step before remembering the uncertainty that led to her finding a bench in an unoccupied park. Where was she supposed to go? She had no friends left and Dean Fogg had let her get locked up in the library. Though he probably didn’t have much of a choice. Still, there was no one left for her to try and talk to. Quentin allowed her to help save him, but he then dismissed her and shut down any attempts at repairing their relationship. Julia was clearly pissed at her. Who else was she even friends with? Eliot, perhaps. Once upon a time. But if Q was right and he was possessed, then he was in no place to help her. And if Q was wrong...her heart ached for a second even as she recognized they had lost their friendship after the threesome happened.

She sure as hell couldn’t go to Margo. She would probably be the last one to forgive her especially since after Alice destroyed the keys, Eliot was possessed. She’d tried to warn them, but they were too angry to listen.

Alice looked down at the book in her hands. She could do what she told Q should would do. She could use the book to find out where she was supposed to go. Was using magic to find a purpose wrong?  It felt like it was. But what other options did she have? 

Alice place the book on the bench and did the spell. 

Modesto, apparently, was where she should go. Modesto? What the hell was going on in the middle of nowhere that the magic book was telling her it’s where she needed to be? Shoving the book into her bag, Alice looked around. The park was still empty, but she could see people milling around on the nearby street. She had no reason to remain here.

Modesto it was.

**

Being jumped by a horomancer was not how Penny planned on spending his day. Actually, if you asked him his plans, most would include being around Julia and not waking up in a fucking cage. And seriously, spending the day with Marina only reminded him of all the reasons he hated timeline-23. Why the hell would he ever want to be back in the place where everyone he loved was dead?

The horomancer wanted Penny to stay in timeline-23, said someone was dying because he and Marina kept jumping around and staying in timelines they don’t belong in. But didn’t he realize Penny had nothing left here? Why should he stay? Nothing was left for Penny in timeline-23, but in timeline-40...well, there were possibilities there. But the woman was dying and Penny was somewhere he shouldn’t belong.

_ It’s not my timeline anymore. _ That’s what Penny-40 said to him. Going back to timeline-23 wouldn’t help the woman anyway. 

Penny didn’t know how to react. He wanted to stay in timeline-40 and here it was being offered to him. Penny-40 was offering to let him take over his life and something about that felt wrong. Living in the timeline was one thing, but taking over a dudes life felt insensitive. Besides, they were strangers to him. He cared about Julia, but he was quickly coming to see that his Julia and timeline-40 Julia were not the same person. Julia-40 was incredible, but she wasn’t  _ his _ Julia. Could he just slot himself into timeline-40 and expect everything to feel normal? It wasn’t his life.

But Penny-40 asked him to look after them. There was no going back for him and he just wanted to know someone was looking out for those friends he called idiots. Penny wanted to say he agreed because he wanted to help. That he said he would look after them selflessly and because it was the right thing to do. But internally he knew. He knew that this was his chance to start over, to not be alone. And he couldn’t turn it down. It wasn’t just about being closer to Julia either. He wanted to get to know Julia-40, felt drawn to her, but in that moment after meeting Penny-40, he felt like he’d realized why he went to timeline-40 in the first place: to look after the people he already failed once.

_ When the moment comes, do it. Do what he says. _

**

Kady crossed another case from her list. No matter what everyone else said, these cases felt important, like a link to a life where she had been something. When she was Sam, she had been one of the good guys. Her job matterered. Now life was just dodging bullets and dealing with monsters again. There was no end to this. They fought one monster and another showed up. But working on Sam’s cases gave her a feeling of purpose.

It was only a matter of time before something else went wrong though. Of course they couldn’t stay in Marina’s safehouse without there being some type of price and now she had to stop her important work to get it done. She downed a shot of bourbon as she moved across the bar. Meeting with Pete was annoying and a waste of her time. All she had to go on was a holding bag and a doll and how the fuck was that going to help her pay rent? 

Selling one item off to another was frustrating, but if there was one thing Kady knew how to do it was haggle ad steal. Getting the holding bag wasn’t hard so much as it was such a monumental time waste that Kady felt like gauging her eyes out. A few months ago her life had meant something and now she was in a magical black market trading up items to get a doll to pay her rent. Fucking fantastic. Now to find the doll.

She heard Pete go on and on about whatever was currently happening in the hedge world, but she wasn’t listening. Get the doll and get back to work. That would have felt simpler if the doll wasn’t currently in a dead mans house. In her sorry life, worse things had happened. They grabbed the doll and left, though Pete decided to grab the Dewey. Couldn’t waste limited magic.

It was only after Pete started dying that Kady saw the connections between all the recent hedge deaths. The guy in the market had been holding a Dewey card and so had the man they stole the doll from. The library was using Dewey’s and magic to kill hedge witches. The Library wasn’t just withholding magic, they were actively killing hedges! Kady punched the wall. Why was it always something bigger?

She didn’t want to get involved. She wanted to go back to Sam’s cases and do something where she knew she could make a difference. It was the easier choice. But she owed the hedge witches something. After getting kicked out of Brakebills they were there for her. If she could do something to help then, she had to. 

She called a meeting.

It almost shocked her the number of hedges that showed up. For so long it felt like they only existed in the shadows, they could only survive in the dark. But now, here in her new home, dozens of hedges stood ready to listen to her. She hadn’t signed up for this. She wasn’t a leader. But they were here, looking at her, and she had an answer. She knew what was going on and there was something she could do to help. She couldn’t let them down. She remembered where she came from and for a moment, she saw what they could become.

**

Magic was broken. No matter where she looked, that’s all Alice could do. Uncontrollable magic was bad and the Library controlled magic was bad. She had barely started on her journey to Modesto when she saw how flawed the libraries plan for magic allocation was. Whatever ambient magic was in the air was now gone and she could do nothing but wait on a taxi. A taxi. Here she was, a magician, and she was waiting on a taxi. Alice stood impatiently at the street’s corner, waiting. She had felt determined after the book showed her Modesto, but it was taking more effort than she expected to get there. Why did they never show this part? The walking and the riding while they got from place A to place B. 

She felt a pang, memories of Penny coming to the surface. Their Penny. Outside of Quentin, Penny was the only other person at Brakebills that she connected with. He had been her friend and he was gone. Another way magic had hurt her. She felt an unsettling joy knowing Plover should be getting the same treatment in the poison room. It was what he deserved.

After what felt like hours she was arriving in Modesto. Perhaps she had expected too much from the book. Looking around at the town all she saw were old buildings and a small park. Some of the buildings were in good condition, well upkept and groomed, others looked to have been abandoned.

Sheila was so hopeful when Alice met her. She was excited at the prospect of magic and learning how to control it. She didn’t see the pain in it that Alice did. When had magic ever fixed anything? All the pain she ever went through, all the uncertainty and loss, it was all because of magic. Who wanted the power to cause that kind of pain? There was nothing worth it.

But Sheila was different. She was excited and hopeful and had seen none of the pain. And that attitude was a bit contagious. Both Sheila and Alice had magic, but only one saw it as a burden. Alice tried to remember if there was ever a time when she genuinely loved magic and believed in magic like Sheila did. When she was a niffin she had loved magic, part of that was the power, the knowledge that she could do anything and no one could stop her. She had loved being better than everyone else, more capable than anyone. But she had never truly loved magic as innocently as Sheila did.

She wanted to insist they do nothing, but Sheila was right. They had magic and there was a problem that needed fixing. Magic didn’t fix everything, but maybe it could do this small thing. There were people already hurting surely nothing could get worse. The book had led her here just like it led her to finding out Quentin was in danger. She had saved Q, maybe she could help Modesto too. 

She taught Sheila the spell.

Afterward, as she was starting at a group of excited children running through the first clean water they had seen in weeks, Alice felt a bubbling inside her. They had done this. They had put those smiles on children’s faces. She had helped here and magic had made these people's lives just a little bit better.

She tried to fight back the smile but it was a losing battle. Happiness spilled out of Alice and she gave a laugh. She had used magic and it had helped! She had done something good. She couldn’t remember the last time using magic had made her feel good. She couldn’t remember the last time she truly smiled. And maybe this body never had. But in that moment, watching the children in front of her play, Alice was smiling.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not all updates will come this fast, but since a lot of this is based on the source material, I wanted to get it up quickly. The purpose in writing out these scenes and fleshing out the characters here is to give a jumping-off point. These are the plots the show set up and then either abandoned or rushed through.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story starts to deviate here. I had planned to have more characters interacting, but when this one section took 3000 words, I figured it should be saved for another chapter. Part of this will be familiar, I just couldn't get rid of one of my favorite scenes from season 4...

The monster stumbled into the safehouse, swaying with each step.

Seeing the monster, Quentin fought back the visceral reaction he had every time he saw it. That was Eliot’s face. Before he knew, he was able to block out what the Monster looked like, pretend it was another weird magic thing or a shapeshifter or something. But that illusion was gone the minute he found out Eliot was alive in there. That body was Eliot’s body. Q tried not to remember all the ways he knew Eliot’s body. That monster was violating him and there wasn’t anything Q could do about it. All he could see is Eliot when he looked at the Monster and he hated the Monster for it.

Eliot was trapped in there and the only way Q knew how to save him was to help the Monster get a new body.

“I almost got his by one of those...what do you call them? A big moving box.” The Monster said this offhandedly, as if he were commenting on the weather or another everyday, normal occurrence.

Quentin wondered for a minute what the hell a moving box was before it hit him. He felt the blood start to drain out of his face. Shit. The Monster had almost gotten hit by a bus. _Eliot_ had almost gotten hit by a bus. The Monster had left the safe house for who knows how many hours and had done something that nearly got Eliot killed. An urgency started to form in Q’s gut. Something even stronger than what he’d felt before.

Q couldn’t stop himself from speaking. “You have to be careful!”

The Monster looked at him, like he was trying to determine if he was a threat. He had been extremely warm to Quentin, a weird imprint that must have come about after Q offered to stay with him.

“Why would I stop if it makes me happy?” The Monster spoke like a child, and not for the first time, Quentin wanted to scream. The Monster was an actual child. A murdering, all powerful child. Who had stolen Eliot from him.

“We found a lead!” Julia rushed into the room. She touched his back gently before looking at the Monster. She held her book out towards him gently. He took it carelessly and barely glanced at the pages.

“What do these words tell me?” He tossed it to the side.

Julia winced. “There was an ancient tomb that the locals said was a source of great healing magic. If the gods sealed part of your body away, this sounds like a good place to start.”

It was grasping at straws, but what else did they have?

“Hmmm.” The Monster finally glanced at the content of the book. Then he vanished.

“God, I’m thankful you found something.” Q sighed. Even if it was a longshot, if it panned out it took them one step closer to saving Eliot.

Julia grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the living room. She was saying, “Who knows how long we have until he gets back. We need to use this time to see if there’s a way to stop him.”

She sat down on the couch and opened one of the dozens they had laying around.

Quentin plopped down beside her. “We need to figure out a way to get him out of Eliot. Maybe other methods besides this building a body one.” He picked up a different book, _Magicians and Zombies_. He tossed it back in the pile. “We can worry about stopping him later.”

The Monster was starting to get careless. Every second Eliot’s life could be in danger and they couldn’t afford to waste time. The had to free him soon.

“Well we can’t exactly look up ways to stop him while he’s standing over our shoulder. We tried that. It didn’t work.” She wasn’t saying he ruined the plan, but he knew what they all thought. They had a perfect opportunity to permanently banish the Monster and he’d stopped that plan. But that plan was created when they thought Eliot was dead. Q could not stand to think about what would have happened if he didn’t jump in front of Eliot when Alice threw the stone’s blood at him.

“Come on, Q. You know we need to do this. Stop wasting time.” Julia said. She didn’t sound unkind, but Quentin sat back in shock at her words.

Wasting time? That was the _last_ thing he wanted to do. Now more than ever he felt the seconds as they went by. He wasn’t _wasting time._ Eliot was the priority here. He was the one on a time table. If they didn’t save Eliot soon, who knows what the Monster would do. They could worry about stopping the Monster once Eliot was safe.

Before he could say anything more, Julia grabbed his arm. “Wait!”

He looked at her expectantly. But she jumped up and hurried to the next room. Q followed her. She rushed over to the book and then pulled out her phone.

“That’s what I thought!” She exclaimed.

“Mind telling the room what it is that’s going on?” Seriously, what could she have found in such a short time?

She opened up the book first and pointed to a paragraph. “It talks here about an ancient tomb. The name sounded familiar but I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized I saw it on the news a few months ago. That tomb was excavated and the artifacts brought here! We can get there in half an hour if we take a cab.”

“You mean we sent a monster halfway across the world and it turns out the next possible stone could be here?” What kind of luck was that?

“I wouldn’t wait around for him to get back.” Julia threw on her coat and made for the door. Quentin followed her out.

It was a quiet ride over as they both pored over their phones, searching for any details on the exhibit that would help them. It wasn’t open to the public yet, which meant they’d have to sneak in. They could probably manage that easily with magic, but what were they supposed to do when they found the room? What were they even really looking for? He hoped he’d know it when he saw it.

Sneaking past the guards was surprisingly easy. They almost didn’t need magic at all. Perhaps after the bank heist everything was easy to break into. There were no super secret magician wards here.

It took over an hour to find the right room. They quietly shut the door behind them and stared into the poorly lit room. The artifacts were scattered all over the room, but the casket sat at the center, it’s closed lid undisturbed. Q and Julia looked at each other and they both knew; they were going to have to open that.

“Quentin.”

They both jumped back. Quentin bumped into a crate and the vase sitting on top of it fell to the floor, breaking. Shit, he’d really just broken a thousand year old artifact.

The Monster was smiling at them. “You found it too!” He exclaimed. “I found the tomb but it was empty. I was sad so I found some playthings. Then they told me it was here!” His speech was slurred as he spoke.

“Are you drunk” Julia asked.

“This body hearts tequila.” The Monster took a swaying step. “When I’m happy. When I’m sad. When I’m bored with how long this is taking.” Could godlike creatures get drunk? He knew Eliot was certainly capable of it.

“And do you have any idea where we can find the next stone here?” Julia asked.

He placed his hand on the casket. “Why don’t we just ask someone who was there.”

Watching a resurrected mummy write in hieroglyphics was not the weirdest way Quentin had ever spent his afternoon. For a moment, Q felt productive. Watching the mummy and piecing together his writing was something he could finally do. Of course it turned out Heka’s burial site had also been looted, so the stone was still gone. They were no closer to finding it than before. He had needed this to be a win.

He glanced over at Julia. She had been helping every step of the way, even if sometimes it was done reluctantly. She didn’t agree with his priorities and didn’t seem to understand why they needed to focus on saving Eliot first. She didn’t understand how important this was, yet she was still here. He felt grateful to her, but also frustrated. They needed to save Eliot. Letting him die wasn’t an option.

After dealing with the mummy, the Monster whisked them back to the safehouse using his magic. Funny name for this place. A safehouse. There had not been a moment in this house when they were all safe.

They had two pieces, but no leads on how to get the third. And who knew how many there were total? The weight of the day and their task sat heavy on him. Had he really put all this effort into today, into getting into the museum and decoding the mummy’s words, only to be no closer to saving Eliot? Each second they were closer to something bad happening, he could feel it. They needed to save Eliot fast.

The Monster had disappeared again, off to look for more clues on Heka Quentin was sure. Everytime he left now Q felt a pang of uncertainty. Is this going to be the last time he sees Eliot? The Monster was getting careless and the only person in danger from that was Eliot. At least when he could see the Monster, he knew that Eliot was alive in there.

He only had a moment to his thoughts before Julia was pulling him by the arm. “We need to read.” Unlike before, she left no room for argument. Q wasn’t going to waste time either. If she wanted to look up ways to stop the Monster, fine. But he was not going to be distracted from finding the next stone or a way to save Eliot.

Usually when he and Julia worked they could either do so in comfortable silence. They could do this for hours unless one of them was in a stupid mood and decided to annoy the shit out of the other. That had made up many of their college experience before Brakebills. But the silence they had between now was awkward and uncomfortable. Somewhere in the past few days a tension had started to grow. They didn’t agree on the next steps to take, so they both sat on the couch, reading different books with different views. Quentin tried not to grow bitter at Julia’s refusal to acknowledge that saving Eliot was the most important thing and should be their number one priority. Even if she kept saying that, she was also doing what she could to help and that was more than any of their other friends.

He couldn’t handle the silence any longer. “Look...I just. I just need to focus on one thing right now. That’s all I’m saying.” He couldn’t say more. That would be saying too much.

Julia looked up at him, surprised he’d broken the silence. “Q.” She started, but he interrupted.

“There’s just been so much going on and I think we always do better when we focus on one problem and not try to solve everything at once. Like with the keys we kept to the quest, right?” Well not fully, but close enough. He just wanted her to know he couldn’t focus on stopping the Monster. Not until they had Eliot back.

“We need to know what to do when the Monster gets his body back.” Julia pointed out. She wasn’t wrong.

“Of course we do. But we can’t do that until we save Eliot.” They’d have to worry about stopping the Monster eventually, but it was pointless to come up with that plan until they knew Eliot was safe. “We also need to find Heka and this stone.”

“We’re going to find the stone.” Julia put her hand on his arm reassuringly.

The sound of rummaging drew their attention. Someone was going through the drawers in the next room and if Q wasn’t so used to people coming and going from the penthouse apartment, he’d be more concerned. As it was, he stood up and made his way over to the next room, opening the door to see the Monster digging though drawers. Julia was right behind him.

***

Julia watched as the Monster pulled the drawers aparts. His movements were wild and frantic, so unlike anything she’d seen from him before. Since the start of the day she’d been noticing his uncoordination, but he’d still acted slowly and methodically. Now he was frantic, his movements rushed.

“What are you doing?” Quentin asked loudly.

The Monster was shoving things to the side, digger into more drawers until he found a bottle of pills. He held it up triumphantly before Q snatched it away.

The Monster barely had to lift a finger to send Q crashing against the wall. Fear crept into Julia as she ran to Quentin’s side. She knelt down beside him, looking for injuries.

He panted against the wall. “Those pills can kill you!” He said, his voice trembling with emotions.

The Monster started to pick up the scattered pills from the floor. “I’ll take a new body.” He said apathetically. His frantic movements, his sudden drinking, the pills, all of it suddenly made sense. Eliot had struggled with addictions and now his body was giving the Monster those cravings he’d started to fight.

“You kill Eliot,” Q spoke as he stood up against the wall, “you can forget about us helping you.”

The Monster dropped the pills. He stood up and walked menacingly towards them. Julia felt the fear grow stronger. While she might be indestructible, this creature could kill Q without a thought.

“Eliot, Eliot, Eliot.” He didn’t blink as he came closer. “Why do you care about him so much.”

“Because I do.” Quentin stared at the Monster, never breaking eye contact. “You kill him and we’re done. I swear to god I am serious. I will abandon you and I will die trying to burn you to the ground.” Q wasn’t speaking as if he were afraid. He was staring at the Monster and his words were so passionate, Julia knew he meant everyone . Oh god.

She started to see what was going on.

“That’s cute.” The Monster was in Q’s face now. He placed a hand on Q’s neck. “But I’m strong.” Another hand. “And you’re weak.” He squeezed.

Julia was terrified. She had not magic and nothing she could do would save Q.

“Break my bones.” Q started talking through the Monster’s grip. His voice was hoarse. “Strangle me. Too tired to care anymore.”

“Q…” Julia couldn’t breath. She couldn’t do anything.

He wasn’t done. “You hurt him, you take one more pill, and you can build your body on your own.”

For a second, Julia thought this was it. Her body was frozen in place and she was going to watch her best friend die. The Monster’s grip tightened on Q’s throat. Quentin never flinched.

After what felt like an eternity, the Monster let Quentin go. “Fine. I’ll take better care of the meatsuit. You don’t have to be such a baby about it.”

The Monster took a step back and turned to walk away. It was like the scene had never happened. Except Q’s neck was red and his words were ringing in Julia’s ears. They needed to talk.

She took a step towards Q, but he turned to her and gave her a look. If she had known him any less than half her life she would have wilted back. As it was, she took a step closer and gently touched the side of his neck.

“It’ll probably bruise.” She spoke softly.

Quentin shrugged. “Oh well.”

She struggled to know what to say. There were so many things he’d revealed in the last few minutes and they each felt important. They needed to be addressed and he needed to know she was there for him. But she could see from the look in his eyes that he was not going to address the last things he’d said. She was scared. She’d known him all her life and had seen him in bad episodes before. But somehow she had missed how bad this one was. What kind of friend was she? She’d known he wasn’t doing well but hadn’t taken the time to actually ask him how he was. She shouldn’t made time.

A voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she had known, but had also seen he wasn’t willing to talk right now. She ignored it to focus on what she could do right now.

“Q, we’re going to save Eliot.” God, that was the other thing. It finally made sense, Q’s desperation to save Eliot. She had thought it was because Q considered him a friend, and of course Q would do anything for his friends, but this was different. This was so much different. She heard it in what he didn’t say. It made sense now. It was like the final piece that was missing was found.

“I know.” He said weakly. All his conviction from earlier was gone.

“How long have you…” She trailed off. How was she supposed to ask him this?

Quentin pulled back from her quickly. “How long have I what?” His voice was hard, his eyes narrow and flitting around. He wouldn’t make eye contact.

She folded her arms across her chest. “Q. What Eliot means to you, I get it.”

He let out a derisive laugh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s stop wasting time, we have books to read.” He turned his back on her. “Since we’re the only ones actually looking for a way to do this, I’m not going to waste my time talking about something that doesn’t matter.”

She walked behind him back to their workspace. Doesn’t matter? Of course Q’s feelings mattered. And Eliot clearly mattered to him, more than she had even considered. “Well,” she spoke slowly. “They might be more willing to help if they knew more of what was going on.”

Q looked up at her. “They’re all working on their own little quests right now, right? Alice is doing god knows what, Kady hasn’t been around but to eat every few days, Penny’s playing a disappearing act, and Margo was sent Fillory.”

Julia and Q froze at the same moment. She watched as his eyes widened in horror along with her own. “Margo.” They breathed out.

Shit. She didn’t know Eliot was alive.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long month kept me busy, but hopefully I'll have a bit more time to write these next few weeks. We'll see how grad school goes! I've been excited to get to this chapter so it was a lot of fun to write once I had time.

“Well shit.” Margo breathed out as they tried to pry open her birthright box. She didn’t know what the fuck a birthright box was, but there was a lot of shit going on in Fillory at the moment and maybe it would help. Not that Margo trusted some magical box to solve all of her problems. She’d seen those Disney movies, she knew how trusting in inanimate objects worked. 

“High King Margo!” Tick approached her wearily. There were few faces that made Margo want to punch them, but Tick happened to have one of them. Him and fucking Todd. Tick had been nervous around Margo since the election and her time away from Fillory hadn’t changed that. He had good reason to be nervous. She had wanted to publicly execute him for his betrayal but El...but she had been persuaded otherwise. She was regretting that decision.

“What?” Margo turned from where the palace guards were trying to open the box. “Can’t you see I’m kinda busy here.” She gestured to the work being done, no progress being made.

When she looked at Tick’s face, she saw a flash of annoyance before he schooled it into that smarmy smile. God she hated that face too. Why had she let this man live? “Yes, well, an urgent matter had come to my attention.” The plastic smile remained on his face as she glared.

“Well? Don’t hesitate now.” She had to get the box open, figure out the magic problem that had been going around, council talking animals who now decided they had something to say...she really did not have time for more of Tick’s self-importance.

“Well, as you know, we just got the talking animals, well, talking again.” That smile didn’t move. A twitch ran through her, an urge to find a way to swipe it off. “We got a talking rabbit--.”

“Margo!” Fen interrupted, running into the room. Her hair was a mess, like the wind had caught it while she was sprinting through the castle. Really, what now? Like Margo didn’t have enough to deal with, now she’d have to deal with E- with more mourning. She had shit to do, why wouldn’t everyone leave her the fuck alone?

“High King Mago,” Fen said, regaining her breath and formality. “A message from West Loria arrived. They said that with the lack of stability in Fillory and the absence of a marriage, they are sending a delegate to discuss the terms of an alliance and see if one is still acceptable to their people.”

She should care about that, right? Yes, she should definitely care about West Loria. God, they’d been nothing but trouble since they got here. 

Margo sighed before looking back at her birthright box. The guards could continue working on it, it appeared she now had to figure out an alliance with a country that should be begging them for help. Honestly, she leaves for one year and everything goes to shit. She couldn’t trust anyone to rule her kingdom. “Fine, we’ll meet with their delegates. And let them know who’s holding the power in the godforsaken land.”

Fen hesitated, as if she was going to say more. “What?” Margo asked.

Fen shook her head, glancing at Tick and the guards quickly. Fucking shit, there was more? Ugh. “Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, scram.” The guards looks at one another, uncertain of the words. One glance at Margo and the meaning was clear. They picked up the birthright box and moved quietly out the door. Tick still stood nearby, watching. “You too short stuff.”

Tick looked affronted by the nickname. “But Your Majesty-.”

“Now.”

He looked put out, but Tick slowly bowed and walked back out, leaving Margo and Fen alone.

“What couldn’t you say in front of those bimbos?” Margo eyed Fen, who was wringing her hands through her dress.

“It’s not about the message...I mean, that was important...but there was another thing that happened. Well, kinda happened? I don’t know, it happened, but I don’t know if it’s real. And if it’s not real, did it really happen?” Fen was rambling. Margo really wanted to have patience, but today was not the day.

“Spit it out, Fen.” Margo demanded, a touch of irritation in her voice.

“I’ve been having these dreams lately.” Fen said quickly.

“Dream? Like I Dreamed a Dream or Sweet Dreams?” 

“Huh?

“What kind of dreams?!” Why was it so hard to get to the point?

“Oh well, like, prophetic dreams?” Fen spoke as if asking a question.

“Prophetic. Like seeing the future, warming about plagues type prophetic?” Margo wanted to say fuck this and go to sleep. She needed a good Xanax right about now. Prophetic dreams. What kind of acid trip was Fillory on now?

“The last few nights I’ve been having these dreams and each time they come true. The first was about Josh cooking empanadas and then he did! No one asked him to do that! Then I had a dream that you were going to try and open your birthright box only to fail.” Fen didn’t need to remind her that failed. “And today, I woke up to a dream about West Loria declaring war and now we’ve gotten word that they are questioning our alliance! This has to mean something.”

“Yeah, it means Fillory’s fucking shit.” Margo sighed. “So what Fen, you’re having these dreams, what does it matter? West Loria wants to start a war? Let them. They’ll never know what hit them.”

“Margo, there’s more…” Fen was not someone easily irritated, but she seems frustrated that Margo was not joining in her concern. “We have to figure out what these dreams are and why they’re happening.”

“No, you need to figure that out. I need to run a fucking kingdom. A kingdom that’s determined to see itself die.”

Margo watched as Fen drew her lips into a tight line. Great, now she’d offended probably the nicest person in Fillory. Who next? The fucking sloth? “Look Fen, if you need to go off on a little adventure to figure this out, by all means, go have your Hobbit adventure. But I’ve got to figure out a lot of shit here.”

Fen shook her head slowly. She looked like she was about to say something, then bit her lip. Margo turned to leave, but apparently Fen found her voice.

“Have you cried yet?”

Margo stopped in her tracks, blood running cold. She turned slowly, shoving her anger down as deep as she could. “What did you just say?”

“Have you cried yet? For Eliot.” Hearing that name was like a stab to the heart. Eliot. Eliot. Her Eliot. Had she cried for him? Had she let herself be torn to pieces for him? “Margo, you’ve been yelling at everyone and being demanding. More than usual. You need to grieve for Eliot.”

How dare she. How dare this woman who’d only known Eliot a couple years tell Margo how to mourn. Did she know that every breath was pain? That the only way to even exist was to not think about it. To not think about him at all. Thinking about Eliot led to missing him and she couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t do that. Because then it would be real.

“Have I cried for Eliot? Have I mourned him?” Margo took a step towards Fen, holding her head high, refusing to let the emotions out. “I can’t cry for him. Because I can’t cry out all the sadness. Ever. Because if I start, I’ll never stop. Do you understand?”

She had to hold it together. She couldn’t do it now. Not when there were things to do and an ever growing list of problems to solve. She watched as Fen took in her words. And then a look too close to pity formed in her eyes and Margo had enough. She turned away, her chest tight. If she thought about him for another second she was sure it would burst. And then what good would she be to anybody? She needed to not think about him. She needed to focus on Fillory. The dam on her heart had started to crack and she did what she did best. She pushed her feelings away and put on her mask.

**

Quentin had expected to hear back from Margo quickly, but perhaps more was happening in Fillory than he’d assumed. Time worked differently there, so who knew how long it would be before they heard from her. While Julia helped him search through books for an answer, there was no one who would put more effort into saving Eliot than Margo. She would tear apart hell itself to save him if she had to. 

More than he’d wanted to admit, Q knew he needed her. And not just for the help with books. Julia was helping but she didn’t care. Not the same way. Julia was helping because Q wanted to save Eliot, not because she felt the same drive. She had been more than willing to let Eliot die for the greater good just a few days ago and Quentin hadn’t managed to forget. 

_ How long have you? _ _ _

How long has he what? Been willing to do anything to save his friends? Surely Julia knew he always would have done that.

_ What Eliot means to you. I get it. _

But she didn’t. No one did. And maybe part of that was he didn’t know himself. Eliot. Eliot. Eliot. He repeated the name in his head, each time remembering the ghost of his smile. One side always ticked up first before Eliot was fully smiling, his eyes brightening in mirth. He’d smirk sometimes, mischievousness in his eyes and on his lips. Lips that spoke comforting words and had once offered comforting warmth. Q shut his eyes as the memory of that mouth came unbidden. 

No. He couldn’t think about that. No distractions were worth delaying rescuing Eliot.

He was reading from a Latin tome, asking Julia for translation help when Penny appeared in the living room. Someone suddenly appearing in front of him had stopped being shocking two years ago, especially when it was Penny.

Quentin wasn’t so self-absorbed in his Save Eliot quest that he didn’t notice the way Julia looked up when Penny arrived, nor the way they shared a glance before anyone spoke.

“Um, yes?” Q asked, ready to move on and get this distraction out of the way.

“Where have you been?” Julia asked before Penny had a chance to speak.

Penny sat down across from them. “I was in timeline-23. What’s going on here?”

While Q continued reading, Julia filled Penny in on the last few days. She avoided mentioning their last conversation, for which Quentin was thankful. Penny told them about his time in timeline-23, which seemed to have been just as eventful, though minus a childlike monster on the loose. Sadly, nothing from either of their adventures pointed them any closer to an answer.

Before this quest, Q had never put much stock in reading. He loved  _ Fillory and Further _ and he knew those stories front to back. But old library books weren’t his strong suit when it came to studying. This wasn’t Fillory they were trying to fix, this was Eliot. And nothing confused him more than Eliot Waugh. They just needed a lead. Something that came before the monster killed Eliot.

Would it be so bad to help the Monster get his body back? They could reconstruct his body and then he would leave Eliot. Killing the Monster after he was out of Eliot had to be easier than getting him out of Eliot’s body now. But the Monster had started doing threatening things to Eliot’s body. What if he gave into the drugs and overdosed? Or he was careless in his immortality and let Eliot’s body be destroyed in another way?

He wished there was a way to get back in contact. A way to communicate with Eliot that they could come up with a plan together. Eliot was good at plans. He was smart. 

But in order to do that they’d have to get into the Monsters head and - HOLY SHIT.

“Penny!” Quentin jumped up from the couch. Penny and Julia looked up at him, startled. Neither of them knew what to make of his outburst. “Penny, you can get into people’s minds. You’ve done it to me enough times. Can you help us communicate with the real Eliot?”

Penny continued to look at him like he was crazy. “I don’t know how powerful your Penny was, man. But we’re talking about a god-like monster here. I can’t handle that kind of projecting.”

“But what if he let you?” A plan was beginning to formulate.

Penny stared, incredulous. “You really think the Monster is gonna let me into his mind by choice?” 

“He would if he thought it would help.” Julia sat upright. She started digging through the books on the table before finding the one she was looking for. “We’ve been going over ways to get the Monster out of Eliot and figure out who he really is, but we’ve forgotten the Monster also wants this information. He  _ wants _ to find his body. So we can use that to convince him to share his mind.”

“Can you access memories?” Quentin asked Penny.

Penny hesitated for a moment. “If the minds guard is down, I can pretty much navigate anything.” He stood up, pacing. “But that doesn’t change how strong his mind might be. Even if he willingly lets me in, he’s still a stronger entity and I don’t know what would happen.”

“We’ve got to save Eliot!” Q yelled. Why wasn’t Penny getting how important this was?

Julia put her hand on his arm. “Q.” She spoke softly. “We can’t just risk everyone’s lives for Eliot. You can’t force Penny to do something that could harm him.”

Quentin wanted to argue. He wanted to shout that any cost was worth it if he could see Eliot himself again. If he could see him standing before him smiling his normal, cocky smile. But she was right. He could no more force Penny to risk his life than he could ask Julia to. It wasn’t fair, no matter how much his heart longed for a solution.

Q looked at Penny, who appeared to be in deep thought. He slowly lowered himself down, ready for the disappointment of this small glimmer of hope being snuffed out. What a stupid idea. Getting inside the mind of the Monster? He really was desperate.

“Fine. I’ll do it.” 

Q and Julia both looked over at Penny, startled.

“I’ll do it.” He repeated.

**

Margo made her way through the gathering, holding her head high. She was doing a good job acting as a diplomat. Already she had spoken with the representatives from West Loria and they had seemed impressed with how she handled the most recent crises in Fillory. It seemed the problem with talking animals was widespread and most attributed it to bad allergies, a side effect of the strange trees growing to the east. No matter the cause, the animals were recovering now and it seemed those dynamics had settled back to normal. Or as normal as Fillory could be.

Margo was wandering to find another wine glass when Josh approached her. She stiffened, afraid that he’d again try to talk about feelings. He’d already tried that once right after they’d slept together. She wasn’t here to do feelings. Feelings so far had only brought her pain.

“What do you want.” She asked, a hint of irritation in her voice.

Josh looked around the room before leaning closer. “Have you spoken with Tick?” Josh was eyeing her curiously.

Tick? What in gods name did Tick have to do with anything. “No. What’s that imp up to?”

“You really haven’t spoken to him? It’s been two days since he’s known apparently. He only told me because he said you’ve been avoiding him. Not that I’ve had any better luck.” Josh mumbled to himself.

Was he seriously going on about this now? She was trying to keep an alliance and prevent a war, though she was sure she could win any battle they had. But Fen was right, she’d been a bit hostile lately and should probably tone that back. Maybe. But that didn’t mean she had to interact with everyone who bothered her. Hence the ignoring Josh and Tick. Her days were just better that way.

“Margo.” Josh tried again for her attention. 

“What!” She exclaimed. Why could no one just say what they needed to say? 

Josh leaned in closer still. “The talking bunnies came with a message from Quentin.” The got her attention. She hadn’t heard from any of the others since she’d been sent back here. What was happening back on Earth? 

“What did he have to say?” She was eyeing the room again, but Josh finally had her attention. As much as she was busy fixing Fillory, she felt a longing for the friends that she’d found. She hadn’t realized until that moment how lonely ruling was. Before she’d had  _ him _ by her side. But now she was truly alone.

“Eliot is alive.”

Cold washed over Margo.  _ Eliot is alive. _ She misheard those words. She had missed something in what Josh was saying. He meant something else. He had to. She stared, hoping to get some kind of glimpse of what prank this was. What trick was being pulled here. But as she looked over his expression, all she saw was honesty.

_ Eliot is alive. _

The words reverberated through her skull, each echo getting louder until it’s all she could here. 

_ Alive. Alive. Alive. _

The word turned into a drumbeat against her heart. Each beat brought the words to life and a quiet sob ripped from her chest.

It felt like her heart was breaking and being put back together again. 

Eliot was alive. 


End file.
